Tax and shipping zone problems

[digicammad]

I've scoured the threads but can't find an answer to this, so forgive me if it has been covered elsewhere.

 

I'm really struggling to get my head around the zones setup. I am developing a UK based store but want to accommodate orders placed in other countries. I need to have a single tax zone, so all products are priced including VAT, but use 2 different shipping tables depending upon whether delivery is to the UK or abroad.

 

When I set up the UK on its own everything seems fine, but when I try to factor in international deliveries I end up either losing the VAT, losing all shipping options for the UK or offering both UK and international shipping options for international customers.

 

I'm sure this must be easy and I'm just doing something dumb, but at the moment I'm going around in circles. Can somebody let me know how I achieve this please?

 

Cheers

[digicammad]

Okay I seem to be getting somewhere. I've managed to get the tax sorted out by just having one tax zone with no countries specified. That still leaves me unable to suppress the UK shipping option being displayed for customers not in the UK. Also, international customers get the following message on the zone rate line:

 

Delivery to 'FR' : 330 lb(s)

 

Where 'FR' is the destination country. I have no idea where the 330 lbs is coming from, it doesn't seem to be a conversion of the product weight. Is this some form of postal limit?

[digicammad]

Another question, how do people normally deal with customers who register from an unsupported country? At the moment the system just seems to skip the shipping price if it can't find a rate, is there no way to stop checkout and ask the customer to contact us for shipping information?